Immigration team carried out ‘bullying’ raid in Oban

Officers ‘showed no respect for staff or property’

The owner of an award-winning Indian take-away is to lodge an official complaint about the “intimidating and bullying” behaviour of immigration enforcement officials who carried out raids on the premises looking for illegal workers.

Shaukatchaudhry,whoruns the Kebabish restaurant and take-away, which has won several awards for its food, claims the officials showed no respect for his staff and property.

One man, who Mr Chaudhry says has never worked at Kebabish, was arrested in one of the restaurant’s two prayer rooms, which are open for use by all of Oban’s muslim community.

Although he was not present when the search was made Mr Chaudhty was able to watch CCTV footage of what happened.

He said the footage shows officers laughing and joking, and vaping as they interrogated Mr Chaudhry’s brother, Hashmat Ali.

Mr Chaudhry, 50, said: “They just came in, ten of them altogether, men and women, including some police. A man pulled the phone out of the hand of the boy who was taking food orders over the phone.

“One of them broke a door by pulling it the wrong way but they then left a copy of a form statingtherehadbeennodamage caused to the premises.

“An officer can be seen pointing a finger at my brother, right into his face. He said, ‘I am going to arrest you’ and my brother was nervous, a member of staff said he saw my brother’s hand was shaking.”

He added: “They were all over the place, but I have no illegal workers here, we don’t employ any illegal workers.

Mr Chaudhry said he was angry with the way people were treated, adding: “I am going to put an official complaint in. The immigration office should think about how hard it is for specialist food restaurants like ours to get staff, instead of targeting us like criminals.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “The Home Office takes reports of inappropriate behaviour very seriously and has robust procedures to follow up concerns that are raised. If anyone has a complaint about our service or professional conduct, we encourage you to email or write to us”

The spokesman said immigration enforcement officers, acting on intelligence, visited three businesses in Oban on the evening of Thursday 16 August and conducted staff checks.